Virtual brainstorming is a term coined as an extension of regular brainstorming sessions. It means that the group meets virtually rather than in person, using various online tools for communication and collaboration. Virtual brainstorming can be used to include groups that are spread out globally, facilitate group sessions with geographically distributed teams, or fill in any gaps where no one can participate in person.
I’ve discovered a number of (neat) applications that enable you to do virtual brainstorming – collaborating with other people on the same document, whiteboard, or canvas. The tools I’m going to introduce are social, collaborative, and have different strengths. The goal is to let you choose the best tool for your needs – continue reading to learn more!
Most projects have a cycle – from an initial idea or problem to solution design, implementation, and completion. In the solution design phase, getting to the best outcome requires keeping an open mind, getting feedback as broadly as you can, and then systematically evaluating and iterating towards the best solution. Towards this end, bringing stakeholders together into a room to brainstorm, sketch ideas, or do sticky-note exercises to gather feedback can be useful for getting a bigger picture.
In a remote working environment, many software tools can provide similar support, with the additional benefits of being digital – and that includes being connected with conversations and closely available within Microsoft Teams. As you tackle projects in a remote working environment, experiment with different tools to collect and operationalize ideas, brainstorming, and feedback.
IdeaBoardz
IdeaBoardz is a teamwork tool that allows collective brainstorming. Using IdeaBoardz allows for members of a team to combine inputs and ideas in one centralized location online.
Created in the format of a whiteboard with sticky notes, IdeaBoardz allows different members to add post-it notes with their ideas to a collaborative board.
The tool gives the option to log in, to allow you access to previously viewed boards but does not require an account to use the tool.
IdeaBoardz is a great team brainstorming tool and allows for easy sharing through its URL as well as the option to export the board as a PDF.
Infinity
Infinity makes brainstorming not only incredibly easy but also fun (and we’re not just saying this because we’re biased). This brainstorming software offers amazing flexibility, adaptability, and versatile customization options that will help you and your team power up your collective creativity, streamline team organization, and become more efficient.
Say goodbye to creativity blocks, stressful atmosphere, and project scope creep. Whether you’re looking for a way to motivate your team to maximize their potential for brainstorming or a freelancer trying to organize your ideas and tasks with ease, Infinity’s got it all covered.
Plus, it represents one centralized and organized place for a plethora of projects, from marketing projects and HR activities to sales and finance processes.
The best thing about this brainstorming app, however, is that it gives you the full freedom to create your own structure, organize it, and customize it to your needs, making it a great virtual place for online brainstorming sessions. Additionally, you can view all of your data in six different ways, which can only further encourage you to spend more time working with your team on the next big idea.
“We use infinity on a daily basis. It is our core tool for project management. You can do almost everything, with so many different views. And it is improving every day!” – Javier Loureiro
There are also 20 fully customizable attributes you can add to your items, including labels, date, text, formulas, checkbox, and attachments, as well as useful integrations e.g. Zapier and Clockify, to help you enhance the way you work.
Key Features
- Infinite Structure—Create an unlimited number of boards, folders, and items, and customize them to suit your needs.
- Six Views—Seamlessly switch between six different views to get your creative juices flowing. Use a List view to add new items (thoughts, ideas, and suggestions) or Forms to collect feedback from customers, then collaborate on their opinions with the team to improve your products/services. Infinity is a few steps away from launching two more views, Document and Gallery.
- Over 50 Templates—Infinity is packed with a bunch of templates you can use each for brainstorming.
- Custom Attributes—Infinity comes pre-packed with 20+ customizable attributes that can help you effectively brainstorm with your co-workers. For instance, once a new item is created, everyone involved in the brainstorming process can add their unique votes and show whether they are keen on turning that idea into action or they feel it’s just “blah”.
- File & Note Sharing—Infinity supports sharing multiple file formats, including images, GIFs, videos, etc. Quickly attach links to notes or link to other items in your folders to keep your team members inspired.
- Team Collaboration—Invite people from other departments to join your brainstorming boards, folders, or subfolders and encourage them to share their ideas, make comments under their suggestions or mention people who need to hear about them.
- Task and Project Management—Infinity is not just a plain brainstorming tool. Packed with tons of task and project management features, it lets you turn ideas into tasks and assign them to one or multiple users, or even turn an idea into a whole project.
And if you’d rather not get started on your own, you can choose one of our 50 pre-made templates and start making real work happen ASAP. Don’t know which one to choose? No worries, there’s a template for a variety of industries and niches in our library, from HR and marketing to sales and project management.
Trello (Manage projects)
Students often work on multiple projects simultaneously and it can be easy to lose track of the endless list of tasks that have to be completed. Fortunately, project management applications such as Trello can help with that!
Users can create a Trello board for each of their projects before inviting their group mates to collaborate on the board. Our advice is for students to create different sections to categorize each task under. Some examples of section headers can be: ‘ideation,’ ‘work in progress,’ and ‘awaiting review.’ As each task moves up the stages of development, students will be able to drag and drop these tasks under the relevant category.
With Trello, students can track the group’s progress on different aspects of their project and thus devote more attention to weak areas that need more pushing.
Alternatives to Trello:
Google Docs & Google Sheets
Google Docs, of which Google Sheets is a subset, is the modern scratch paper. The free collaborative web-based software makes it simple to upload a document, create a tracking table, and use all the other features with a team, sharing documents with each other and collecting edits.
Slack (Communicate for work)
Slack is a virtual workspace that brings individuals together for work purposes. Within Slack, you can create different channels to segregate departments and different work processes.
If you are a student managing a group project, you may consider designating channels for announcements, idea generation, writing, designing, and even a coffee talk channel for some downtime between work!
If you are a teacher, you could create private channels to manage and weigh in on conversations within each project group. That way, Slack serves as a centralized platform to stay up to date on each group’s progress.
Slack also allows you to set office timings such that notifications will be turned off beyond your preset hours. When we are working from home, it is important to set boundaries and to balance work and relaxation.
Alternatives to Slack:
Coggle
Coggle is one of the many online brainstorming tools out there that help you create flowcharts and mind maps, as well as produce beautiful notes which you can then share with others on the team. Overall, it provides you with a better visual of your mind mapping by creating branches as you go through the brainstorming process.
On top of this, it lets you browse a gallery of public diagrams to check what others have been working on, add images, draw links between unconnected branches, and so on. Changes that you make are visible to anyone on the team, no matter where they are located in the world.
To let people discover its features, Coggle offers a free plan which includes over 1600 icons, unlimited public diagrams, and an unlimited number of image uploads. Naturally, paid plans offer more features, control of data, and privacy. However, what’s good about Coggle is that all pricing plans offer downloads in PDF format or images of the diagrams.
Key Features
- Real-Time Collaboration
- Unlimited Image Uploads
- Multiple Starting Points
- Powerful Flowcharting
- Unlimited Private Diagrams
- No-Setup Collaboration
- Create Loops & Join Branches
- Save Every Change
- Add Floating Text & Images
Pricing
Coggle comes with a free plan and two more paying plans. So, if you are looking for more advanced features, you should opt for one of those two plans—the lowest one starts at $5 per month, per member.
Conclusion:
We all know that whiteboarding is a great way to get a project started before writing code. But did you also know you can use it in Microsoft Teams for brainstorming too?! If you haven’t heard of it, Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace in Office 365. It’s where team members, from different locations and on different devices, come together to create, collaborate and get work done.
While brainstorming can be done anywhere, Microsoft Teams has built-in tools for whiteboarding, mind mapping, and sketching. These collaboration apps allow users to collaboratively produce content via discussion, image, video, and file-sharing. Through Teams’ immersive capabilities, users can participate in brainstorming sessions that include the ability to present materials via screen sharing, annotate screens with sticky notes or ink, or sketch wireframes or storyboards to visualize ideas.